Constant Craving: The Self-Reg View with Dr. Stuart Shanker

Dr. Dan welcomes back listener favorite Dr. Stuart Shanker to the 32nd episode of The Parent Footprint Podcast. 

International parenting expert and bestselling author Dr. Stuart Shanker has helped countless children and families learn about (and break) the stress cycle with his professional work and his paradigm-shifting book, SELF-REG: How to Help Your Child (and You) Break the Stress Cycle and Successfully Engage with Life (now available in paperback).  

Today Dr. Dan and Dr. Shanker discuss and offer ways to tackle the ever present topic of craving and The Hook Model and how it detrimentally affects most kids today (and their parents).  Listeners will recognize the fascinating science behind what happens when dopamine is triggered and how it creates stress and anxiety.  There is a difference between wanting and liking.  Once dopamine is triggered this craving needs an outlet and often there is none… for our children today especially with technology and social media this can be very difficult.  

The biggest takeaway from today:  young people are especially susceptible to cravings (dopamine triggerings) and are so easily hooked and this then leads to so much anxiety — and that is a stressor without an outlet or ending for our children/teens.  The solution will be eye opening for all parents — Dr. Shanker gives parents the exact language to have this discussion with their own child(ren) and how to conquer it.  

At the end of the episode Dr. Dan asks Dr. Shanker about his #1 piece of advice for listeners from today’s show and Dr. Shanker uses his own Parent Footprint moment about his son to illustrate how as a parent it is hard for even Dr. Shanker a self-reg “guru” to say no and that as parents we need to set limits and say no sometimes. 

Dr. Shanker’s recent blog dives even deeper into related information. Dr. Stuart Shanker is a distinguished research professor emeritus of psychology and philosophy at York University and the creator of The MEHRIT Centre. He attended the University of Toronto, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. At the University of Oxford, he obtained his D. Phil. with distinction in philosophy and his work is used globally..